Reply to Why have a baby when your 40?

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[quote=Anonymous]I’ll bite.  UMC educated women tend to have kids when they are older for two main reasons:

1.  It’s better for your finances 
2.  Better for your career

I’m not talking about someone with inter generational wealth or a typical $60k a year job.  I’m talking the countless DC women who have graduate degrees and earn $200k plus.  They are in dual income families with HHIs around 500-750k. Not wealthy, but doing well

Your 20s and early 30s are for focusing on your career and saving.  In a high earning track job, it’s extremely detrimental to have a baby in your 20s.  Most women are still in grad school.  Again, not talking about a $60k a year job.  By the time you’re in your late 30s, you should have more career flexibility and the years of experience and hard work to fall back on.  If I’d had a kid at 25, I’d likely have dropped out of the workforce and returned a number of years later at the same lowly salary.  Because I didn’t have kids, I was earning closer to $120k by the time I was 30.

Having money makes life easier.  When I was 25, I earned around $40k.  Even if I had gone with daycare, having a kid would have extremely difficult financially.  Now I’m in my late 30s and earning 250k plus.  I can easily afford a nanny and throw a lot of money into college savings.

Wealthier, educated moms waiting to have kids is one of many factors driving inequality.  Because I waited to have kids, I’ve been able to save aggressively in 529s.  My kids will graduate from undergrad without any loans.  They will also know to wait to have kids and the cycle will continue.

Still related to finances, we had plenty of money pre-kids to enjoy European vacations and an active social life.  This wouldn’t have been an option with kids.

Having kids in your 20s is like having kids out of wedlock.  It makes life harder financially.  There are exceptions, but for the most part, women who have kids at a young age have the cards stacked against them.

Sure having a baby at an older age has risks for some sort of medical issue.  But there are plenty of young people having kids in Alabama surrounded by obesity and substance abuse.  Not sure that it’s really a greater risk to have kids in your late 30s/early 40s.

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